RETAIL CONSULTANCY PROJECT - 2020/1

Module Overview

The module is aimed to give students experience with running a small consultancy project in retail.

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

BENOIT Sabine (SBS)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

JACs code: N240

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• The role of management consultancy


• Retail marketing planning


• Retail marketing strategy


• Conducting surveys


• Project management

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

1500 word individual report

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate key consultancy skills

1. Identifying and exploring the issue - students will identify the nature and scope of the problem, and the scope of their involvement. What are the hypothetical requirements and expectations of the client? What exactly is their role as consultant? What are the anticipated outcomes of the consultancy project?


2. Exploration and discovery - the outcomes of the consultancy project need to be based on an understanding of the existing situation, so students will need to collect and analyse primary and secondary data, from a variety of sources,


3. Providing advice - students will generate solutions, recommendations and conclusions, in terms of retail marketing strategy, planning and/or implementation. These are to be communicated to the client through a group report and group presentation.

The assessment strategy is based on a written group project and a group presentation that will allow students to demonstrate their ability to collect and analyse information, to formulate evidence based recommendations and to present these to the ‘client’.

The summative assessment for this module consists of:

A group presentation in week 9 and a individual report in week 11

Formative assessment and feedback

Groups will be asked to submit an outline plan of the group project (maximum 500 words) as a formative assessment in week 3

Students will receive feedback on their performance through verbal feedback within their seminar /discussion groups

Module aims

• The aim of this module is to give students the opportunity to undertake a simulated consultancy project in retail.  Students will have the opportunity to conduct a small consultancy project for a hypothetical client from inception until presenting the recommendations to the ‘client'. This is a practical module which will build on students’ theoretical knowledge about retail marketing planning, strategy and implementation.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

The teaching and learning strategy is designed to develop students’ ability to plan, design and deliver a small retail consultancy project. This is a practical based module and will involve regular feedback on students’ progress

The learning and teaching methods include:

Teaching and learning methods include lectures to illustrate theories, guest lectures to provide real business scenarios and supported group work through on-going feedback meetings with the module leader to provide opportunities for discussion of ideas, and group presentations.

These will be delivered through workshops, lectures and seminar group meetings, on a weekly basis, over 10 weeks .

 Lecture notes will be made available in advance of lectures via SurreyLearn.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

Reading list for RETAIL CONSULTANCY PROJECT : http://aspire.surrey.ac.uk/modules/man3136

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2020/1 academic year.